I Heart Radio - Great search Tool for Recording Artists Mailing Lists

MEMPHIS TN (IFS) -- It took me along time to sign up with I Heart Radio.  But what I discovered will put radio promotion companies out of business.   It's the greatest search tool for creating your EMAILING RADIO PLAYLIST   - FREE.  

By joining and using customs settings, you can match your favorite type of artist(s) up against what you have recorded and created, and use your song comparing what's being played.  Use the competing fields of  that same kind of music and create your radio mailing list..  

This program searches and list all of the stations that plays that artist that sounds like you.  So if your new song sounds like David Bowie, you get a list of all the stations playing his music. You send your digital downloads to that station.  And You can save you playlists.

Harrison Ford to Play Han Solo Again? Say It Ain't So, Disney!

MEMPHIS TN (IFS) -- Let's hope that it is so.  The Hans Solo character dominated the toy sales market out of all the dolls.  Can't really say who was doing all the buying and for what age group.  If Ford signs on along with the other stars, I'll go and see the it.  If one of them is out of place, the feeling will not be the same, the continuity of the action and all of the inside jokes of the film will be lost.  Hans Solo is more than just a "doll", he really is a very important part of the movie(s).  I hope Disney will put all the pieces together and move it forward.  Hell, I'm a baby boomer, and these guys are my last heroes for going to another galaxy far far away. - KHS

Harrison Ford to Play Han Solo Again? Say It Ain't So, Disney!

by Linda Sharps

You felt it, right? The great disturbance in the Nerd Force when the Internet reacted to the news that Disney had purchased Lucasfilm for a cool $4.05 billion, and simultaneously announced plans to release the first of at least three more Star Wars films starting in 2015?

Well, depending on how you feel about episodes 7, 8, and 9 of the Star Wars franchise having become a sure thing -- a Mouse-driven sure thing, at that -- you may be shocked, horrified, or downright dumbfounded by the latest news: Harrison Ford is reportedly on board with the idea of playing Han Solo again.

Yes. A 70-year-old Han Solo. I ... just ... wow.



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What's this?

Ford himself hasn't confirmed anything, but according to a "highly placed source":

Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie and he’s upbeat about it.

If this is craziness is actually true, we'll likely only see Ford for one more Star Wars episode, because he reportedly has one big caveat in mind: he wants Han Solo to die. His character was actually supposed to kick the bucket in Star Wars: Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi, but George Lucas supposedly thought it would tank the merchandising sales. As Ford put it in 2010,

I thought he should have died in the last one to give it some bottom ... George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.

I'm not convinced this whole thing isn't pure gossip, because Ford himself hasn't exactly minced words when describing how he felt about playing Han Solo:

As a character he was not so interesting to me.

Then again, he's been equally clear about why he was considering -- at least at one time -- donning Indiana Jones' hat yet again for the rumored fifth movie in that franchise. As I remember, when asked about it on David Letterman, he simply rubbed his fingers together in the universal symbol for ka-ching.

The thing is, regardless of Harrison Ford's continued appeal as an older gentleman, I don't want to see an aged Han Solo. I like Han exactly how he WAS: Hot. Young. An iconic figure from my youth. Forever known for that insanely arrogant response to Leia's declaration of love: "I know." A grandpa version of Han, who would surely toss off lines like "I'm gettin' too old for this"? HELL NO. DON'T DO IT, DISNEY.

What do you think? Would you want to see Harrison Ford play Han Solo one more time?

Iron Man 3 - The Trailer

YouTube to Acquire 10 Percent Stake in Vevo

The Google online video site is expected to invest about $50 million and renew a distribution agreement with the Internet music venture of Universal Music and Sony.

Google-owned YouTube is set to take a stake of around 10 percent in online music destination Vevo, AllThingsD reported.

The deal on the table would include an investment worth an estimated $50 million and the renewal of a distribution agreement, which has been in place for three years. The renewal would keep hundreds of millions of music clips and videos on YouTube.

The overall deal hasn’t been signed and could still be derailed at the last minute, AllThingsD said.

Vevo was founded by music majors Universal Music Group, part of Vivendi, and Sony Music and launched in late 2009. The two labels are investors in Vevo along with Abu Dhabi Media. EMI is also providing music to the joint venture.

Vevo has also looked at distribution deals with Facebook and Viacom/MTV, according to past reports. which has an online video service backed by the other major global record company label Warner Music, to look at improving the revenues it can feed back to the music industry.

Google last year also invested $35 million into Machinima, a Web video network aimed at gamers, that relies on YouTube for distribution.

"While we don't comment on individual negotiations, we always hope to renew our relationships with valuable partners, so we can continue to provide YouTube users with the best possible music experience," said a YouTube spokeswoman.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Looking For Radio's Future? Check The Car

By John Paul Titlow 

You'd think terrestrial radio would be at death's door by now. 

Just like written news, audio content is delivered much more effectively via the Internet than by traditional means. But FM radio is going strong and Internet services comprise only a tiny percentage of total listening time. Now, though, more and better in-car integrations are about to give Internet radio a huge shove into the future. 

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, the partnerships are springing up left and right. Chrystler and GM are teaming up with iHeartRadio. Rhapsody is coming to new Ford cars. So is Amazon Cloud Player. Slacker Radio is integrating with Chrystler's UConnect in-car entertainment system, which happens to be Pandora's 19th such partnership as well. 

Expect to see many more of these integrations between cars and digital media services. Not only are one-on-one formal partnerships becoming more common, but cars are becoming platforms for third-party app developers. Ford just launched an open-source software development kit (SDK) so apps can be built right into the steering wheel and dashboard. One of Ford's technical partners is jacAPPS, an app development house with along list of digital radio projects under its belt. "They're people who understand radio, working on radio's in-car future," writesradio futurologist James Cridland. 

Terrestrial radio isn't sitting idly by, either. Clear Channel has been aggressively developing its iHeartRadio service, which is being built into more and more new cars. Meanwhile, NPR is already working with Ford Sync, Audi, Honda and Subaru, with several more partnerships with carmakers in the works for 2013. 

Changing The Face Of Radio, V-e-r-y S-l-o-w-l-y

All of this is a big deal for Internet radio adoption. Americans do about half of their radio listening in the car. Connecting smartphones via auxiliary cables and Bluetooth is increasingly common, but the user interface remains clunky and jumping from app to app and queuing up Internet radio stations can be cumbersome - if not outright dangerous - while driving. That's why Apple is working with car manufacturers to integrate Siri into the dashboard. It's also why voice control is a central feature on Ford Sync. 

These deals aren't going to kill terrestrial radio overnight, or perhaps ever. After all, radio stations don't crash or experience service outages like Internet apps and services too often do. And radio signals remain much more reliable than Internet connections, especially in moving vehicles. More to the point, though, while all of the new innovations are neat, new cars are expensive and the roads are filled with older ones that run just fine but don't have the latest technology. It will be decades before technology like this exists in a majority of U.S. cars. 

By bringing the most popular Internet radio and music streaming services directly to the dashboard, car manufacturers are making the user experience even more seamless - and crucially, putting more listening options at driver's fingertips. It will be a slow process, but expect radio to sound more decidedly less old-fashioned as more connected cars fill the road.

Queen Latifah's New Daytime TV Show

 It was almost exactly 1 year ago today when it was announced that Will Smith, his Overbrook Entertainment cohorts, and Queen Latifah were teaming up with Sony Pictures TV to produce a syndicated daytime talk show for the Queen to host.

 Details were scarce at the time, except that the program was scheduled to debut in 2013, and it's apparently still on schedule, as Deadline reveals today that, after some competitive bidding between networks, CBS has landed what will be called The Queen Latifah Show (recall the Queen once hosted a talk show, also titled The Queen Latifah Show, which had a rather short run, from 1999 to 2001. Expectations for this upcoming new program are probably higher).

 The show will launch in the fall of 2013, and will feature... ... celebrity interviews, human interest stories, comedy, pop culture and musical performances. It is expected to showcase Queen Latifah’s talents, blending comedy and music into her hosting duties.

 Latifah will join what is already a crowded daytime talk show market, although none of the current crop of new shows has produced a breakout hit, which might give a high-profile show like Latifah's the opportunity to fill in a gap left vacant by Oprah Winfrey's departure. Provided these shows are all still around in the fall of 2013, she'll be joining the Wendy Williams Show (Fox, although it's syndicated), Steve Harvey (NBC/Universal), Trisha Goddard (also with NBC/Universal), Live on ABC, The Talk, The View, and others. Latifah stays busy (via her Flavor Unit production house, along with partner Shakim Compere), both in front of and behind the camera, on TV and in film.


 

Chinese Paper Has Long History of Challenging Authorities

William Gallo

January 08, 2013

The influential Chinese newspaper at the center of a rare protest against government censorship has a long history of progressive and controversial reporting that has tested the limits of free speech in China's strictly controlled media environment.

The Southern Weekly is part of the larger Nanfang Media Group, which is known for its in-depth and aggressive reports on sensitive topics, such as the 2003 SARS outbreak or China's massive network of illegal detentions centers.

The controversial coverage has often landed the media group in the bad graces of Chinese propaganda officials, who have tried - with limited success - to get it to conform to their standards.

Rachel Lu, editor of Tea Leaf Nation, a website that monitors Chinese media,says the paper has undergone several purges in recent years, where staff have been fired, presumably for their reports.

"There have been incidents where editors were replaced, and they would helicopter in new people to run the paper and they helicopter in a new propaganda chief to run Guangdong (province), where the paper is based," says Lu.

She says the restrictions have been successful, but only to a certain point.

"Some would say it's definitely been reined in a little bit. But it has basically retained that flavor, that sort of liberal bend, even throughout all these years where the government tries to restrain its coverage and angle," she says.

One of the most famous incidents came in 2003, when one of the group's editors published an investigation into the death of a young worker who died in police custody after being beaten.

The story led to the discovery of a vast network of underground police detention camps - a revelation that embarrassed Beijing. It also resulted in the detention of Cheng Yizhong, the editor who published the investigation.

Chinese propaganda officials have also tried pre-publication censorship to silence the newspaper. The Southern Weekly said in a recent statement that over 1,000 articles were censored to some degree in 2012 alone.

In the most recent case, editors say state censors replaced an editorial calling for greater constitutional rights with one that praised the accomplishments of the Communist Party.

The government has so far not responded to the incident, which has prompted two days of small protests outside the Southern Weekly, as well as messages of support from a wide array of Chinese celebrities and public figures.

Related - Chinese Continue Protest Against Media Censorship

A Tuesday editorial in the state-run Southern Weekly insisted the paper's editors, not state censors, were responsible for the publication of the editorial in the Southern Weekly. It accused "external activists," including the exiled blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, of inciting the controversy.

But Michael Anti, a prominent journalist and commentator on Chinese social media, says the issue is being driven by journalists who are upset with government meddling and by a general public who wants to know the truth, not by outside forces.

"Of course not. There is no evidence to say that. It is definitely just an excuse. The funny thing is, they even use a blind lawyer in New York City as a scapegoat. I think it's just a joke," Anti says.

Observers say they expect the Southern Weekly, which has a circulation of 1.6 million copies that are spread across China every week, to remain influential among China's intellectuals and progressives, noting that this week's controversy has done little to curb its influence.